DOE Seeks Participants for Commercial-Building Initiative

Wed, 2010-04-21 08:00

As part of an ongoing effort to reduce energy use in new and existing commercial buildings, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) invites commercial-building owners and operators and technical experts to join its Commercial Building Partnerships (CBP) initiative. Three DOE national laboratories—Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)—will manage the new effort, which is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In support of this new CBP initiative, the national laboratories will issue two new opportunities for commercial businesses. Specifically, they are seeking:

• Commercial-building owners and operators constructing new buildings or retrofitting existing buildings that are significantly more energy efficient than current building stock.

• Technical-expert teams and measurement and verification technical contractors to assist with CBP. At a minimum, technical-expert teams will include architectural, HVAC and controls, daylighting, lighting, energy modeling, building auditing and data collection, cost estimation, and commissioning expertise.

CBP accelerates the deployment of energy-efficiency measures by teaming commercial-building owners and operators (participants) with laboratory researchers and private-sector technical experts to provide technical expertise to participants in the design, construction, and validation of low-energy building designs. Participants benefit by learning about cost-effective energy-saving measures that can be applied across building portfolios. Bringing private-sector consultants into the process to assist participants further increases the likelihood that the energy-efficiency measures and strategies used in CBP projects will move into the marketplace quickly and cost-effectively.

Additionally, each CBP building project will be documented in publicly available case studies. The detailed documentation will make it straightforward for building owners and operators outside of the CBP initiative to benefit from the work.

Call for Energy-Efficient Commercial Building Projects Commercial building owners and operators can submit planned new or retrofit commercial-building projects that will achieve significant energy savings. Successful respondents will work with researchers at the national laboratories and with private-sector technical experts under contract to the national laboratories to achieve energy goals. Participants will receive no direct funding but will have access to the technical expertise of national-laboratory personnel and private-sector consultants.

An online application is available at www.nrel.gov/cbp, and completed applications are due by May 10.

Request for Proposals from Technical Experts Private-sector technical experts interested in helping participants achieve CBP energy-saving goals can respond to the technical experts’ request for proposals at http://cbp-forum.lbl.gov. Proposals are due by May 10.